The Czech Republic celebrates May 8th as a Liberation Day – a public holiday to commemorate May 8th 1945. On this day, Czechoslovakia, which until that date, was under German occupation, was liberated by American and Russian army units. This ended the worst and most destructive war in modern European history. On May 8, with Allied troops approaching from west and east, the Czechs negotiated a cease-fire with the Germans. The situation was now critical; the Czechs lacked the machinery and the weaponry to continue fighting the Germans, and the city’s Old Town was in flames. Part of the cease-fire was a guarantee, from the Germans, that the city would be harmed further. The Czechs knew that, with help on the way, the cease-fire would be far more beneficial to them than it seemed on the surface. On May 9, 1945, the Red Army entered Prague. The city had been saved; its currently UNESCO – protected monuments were, for the most part, intact. And the war was, now, finally over. Read the whole article here. Stores, which are bigger than 200 square meters, are closed during this public holidays.